LOS ANGELES — Mitt Romney may have The Donald, but Barack Obama trumped him Wednesday with the creator of Glee.

Unemployment is growing, Europe is stumbling and Syria is in crisis, but the president was back in Hollywood for fundraising. Obama is increasingly reliant on celebrities for his campaign funding, and Republicans say it’s evidence that the president would rather hang out with liberal showbiz types than tend to the nation’s business.

Democrats say both sides do it, and the president can multitask. But an online raffle for dinner with Obama and movie star George Clooney raised $15 million last month, a record that inspired a copycat event next week at the home of Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker. Two days ago, he was restocking his campaign account at a star-studded gala on Broadway.

And Wednesday took him to a gay rights gala in Beverly Hills and to the home of producer Ryan Murphy and his fiancé, David Miller, to rake in a few million more.

“These are the 1 percent who wouldn’t mind having their picture taken with Obama,” said Franklin Gilliam Jr., dean of the school of public affairs at UCLA.

Presidential candidates often chase Hollywood cash and cachet. Music, film and TV stars lean overwhelmingly Democratic, and Obama has had a particularly strong connection: Several made glowing endorsements of him in 2008, and about 16 of Obama’s top fundraising bundlers this year are in show business.

While some have been turned off by his unexpected hawkishness on terrorism and what they perceive as too much willingness to compromise, Hollywood remains one of the staunchest parts of his base. But the affiliation may come with a price. Republicans are hounding Obama, accusing him of frivolity at a time that calls for unflinching attention to the job at hand.

When the most recent unemployment figures, released Friday, showed an uptick in jobless claims, the Republican National Committee released a video mocking Obama for cavorting at such a somber time with the likes of Parker. Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh invoked a ubiquitous reality TV star, calling the president “Barack Kardashian.”

Last week, presumptive GOP nominee Romney appeared with the billionaire reality TV star in Las Vegas, where Trump upstaged him by again trotting out discredited theories about where Obama was born. Romney, as Obama aides have noted, also is promoting a “Dinner with the Donald” fundraiser modeled after the Clooney and Parker events.

In any case, Carney argued, the president has a broader overall base of donors because Obama “is out there fighting for the middle class.”

Voter perceptions

If voters begin to believe Obama isn’t paying serious enough attention to the economy, he’ll be hurt. But if they believe he’s doing his day job and also like the idea of a president who’s hip, the GOP attacks will fall short.

It’s not the first time Republicans have raised the issue. In the summer of 2008, Sen. John McCain’s campaign unleashed an ad titled “Celeb” that some credit for temporarily halting Obama’s momentum. The ad mixed images of Obama, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears and asked: “Is he ready to lead?”

Hollywood adman Fred Davis, who crafted that and other McCain messages, said it’s harder to make that case against Obama now — and less necessary, after more than three years of presiding over an ailing economy.

“I don’t see the young people of America lining up because he’s sighted at the Glee creator’s house,” Davis said.

Another jaunt to Hollywood is surely a worthwhile detour for the president, Davis said, because “he needs the money. They’re very nervous about Mitt Romney’s money machine.”

Like Obama, Romney has been a regular visitor to California lately. His events wouldn’t be confused with red carpet affairs, though. Last week in Beverly Hills, the most famous of the 425 people he drew to a fundraiser were Happy Days star Scott Baio (remember him?) and actor Jon Voight.

Romney “does stuff with Kid Rock, Ted Nugent,” said Obama strategist David Axelrod. “I don’t think they have a whole lot of standing on this issue.”

Latest trip

This was Obama’s third fundraising trip to California in a month. And though enthusiasm among Hollywood supporters had dampened, Obama rekindled it with his announcement last month that he supports gay marriage.

He began his two-day West Coast trip Wednesday in San Francisco, where he raised more than $2 million at a private roundtable for two dozen high-dollar donors and lunch with 250 supporters. Obama was introduced by baseball legend Willie Mays.

In Los Angeles, he spoke at an LGBT Leadership Council Gala at the Regent Beverly Wilshire — the Pretty Woman hotel. Ellen DeGeneres was among the warm-up acts, along with Glee star Darren Criss. The incoming president of the Human Rights Campaign, Chad Griffin, was on hand, along with Peter Roth, the CEO of Warner Brothers Television, and actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson of Modern Family. Cher also attended.

“I could not be prouder of the work that we’ve done on behalf of the LGBT community,” Obama said, vowing not to let anyone force gay servicemen and women “back into the shadows.”

Then Obama was headed to dinner at Murphy’s home, with 70 donors who paid at least $25,000, including actresses Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman herself) and Reese Witherspoon (who, fictionally, attended the same Harvard Law School as Obama).

Alan Schroeder, a Northeastern University professor whose books include Celebrity-in-Chief: How Show Business Took Over the White House, noted that Obama has been careful about the celebrity link. He rarely campaigned openly with the famous in 2008.

Even now as he taps the New York and Hollywood glitterati, he’s not publicly yukking it up with A-listers. In part, that’s to mute attacks that he’s acting frivolous and in part, to avoid losing control of the script, as Romney did when he appeared with Trump.

Besides, Schroeder said, Obama is a bigger star than nearly anyone on the silver screen. And the sorts of stars most in the Obama orbit aren’t the sort who’ll alienate swaths of swing voters.

“People don’t see George Clooney as a left-wing nut,” said Gilliam, the UCLA dean. “People are obsessed with celebrity.”